I Say Ice, You Say Scream…For The Bees

ATTENTION ALL ICECREAM LOVERS!

What do you know about bees and ice cream? To the average person, there is no clear distinction between the two. One is sweet while the other stings. Yet, they are two things we couldn’t live without.

Our ice cream fate relies on the bees. As bees pollinate ⅓ of our food supply, most importantly fruits and nuts, those ingredient create specialty gourmet ice cream, with colorful, fruit, and nutty flavors.

Majority of the current ice cream flavors and big-time ice cream companies depend on these crops. If the crops are at risk due to the decreasing number of bees, some of our favorite ice cream flavors will also disappear. You can say goodbye to white raspberry truffle, cherry vanilla, and lemon raspberry white chocolate ice cream.

What is CCD?

The phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder is what can cause these specialty ice creams to be at risk. Scientists define this as when a vast majority of worker bees will desert their colony at random, leaving behind the queen, young bees, and larvae. Beekeepers have started recording their losses of their colonies since 2006.

On foraging trips, worker bees are exposed to chemicals, pesticides, and nictrodies. These chemicals are located on the crops. Farmers use them to grow more food on less land by protecting crops from pests, diseases and weeds, as well as raising productivity per hectare.

Nevertheless, these chemicals, to say the least, are harmful to bees. The bee will be contaminated to the chemical when pollinating the fruit crop, and unfortunately bring it back to the hive. 

Pesticides still remain a concerning challenge towards bees, as Canada announced their plan to ban the uses of chemicals and pesticides on crops.

Pesticides are not the only factor contributing to CCD. Viruses and threats like pathogens, climate change (or False Spring), and continuous habitat loss are the top main contributors. 

Haagen-Dazs Plan

There is much to be done if we want to save our ice cream flavors, moreover bees. As a first step, one of the most well-known gourmet ice cream companies, HÄAGEN-DAZS®, is making an impact to save our hardest workers.

Haagen-Dazs has donated over 1 million dollars for pollinator education and research. In 2016, the company installed 6-1/2 miles of permanent hedgerow (the largest in the US) at the farm of an almond supplier. By doing that, they have created a pollinator friendly-habitat for the bees during the year.

Haagen- Dazs is also the first company to receive an Xerces Bee Better seal. Xerces is a leading conservation organization working to save the honeybees. The seal confirms that the ingredients in the icecream package were grown and harvested in a “bee-friendly manner”.  

 The solution: Purchasing a “bee-friendly” ice cream is a simple step we can all take to ensure bee awareness. Who knew saving the bees could be a win-win and delicious?